DETERMINATION OF SEX USING DRY ADULT HUMAN SACRUM- A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY

Transcription

1 IJCRR Section: Healthcare Sci. Journal Impact Factor Research Article DETERMINATION OF SEX USING DRY ADULT HUMAN SACRUM- A MORPHOMETRIC STUDY Nisha Yadav 1, Kopal Saini 1, Kalpana Patil 2 1 Department of Anatomy, S.B.H. Govt. Medical College, Dhule, Maharashtra, India; 2 Department of Anatomy, GMC Aurangabad, Maharashtra, India. ABSTRACT Aim: To find out similarities and differences in the metrical values of different sacral parameters in males and females and to highlight the best parameter that could be used to study sexual dimorphism of sacrum. Materials and methods: 140 (83 male and 57 female) adult human sacra were collected from Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The measurements included ventral straight length and maximum breath of sacrum, sacral index, maximum transverse and antero-posterior diameter and index of body of first sacral vertebra. Demarking points for these parameters were used for identification of sex of sacrum. Results: The average values of sacrum for ventral straight length was found to be 104.7±5.94 mm in male and 92.6±6.1 mm in female, maximum breadth was ±4.83 mm in male and ±6.48 mm in female and sacral index was 98.44±4.69 mm in male and ±5.61 mm in female. The average values of first sacral vertebra for transverse diameter was 48.48±4.21 mm in male and 40.75±3.51 mm in female, antero-posterior diameter was 29.12±2.47 mm in male and 26.93±2 mm in female and index was 60.28±4.96 mm in male and 66.36±5.04 mm in female. Conclusion: Sacral index was found to be the best parameter for sex determination of sacrum amongst the parameter studied. Using sacral index alone 27.71% of bones in males and 57.9% of bones in females could be identified. However not a single parameter could identify 100% of the bones. Key Words: Sacrum, Sacral index, Vertebra INTRODUCTION Determination of sex is an integral part and first step in the development of the biological profile in human osteology. Sex determination is necessary to make age, ancestry and stature estimations. 1 Anatomists and anthropologists since long acknowledged the importance of sacrum in identifying the sex of a deceased person. Sexual dimorphic characters of sacrum can be studied both morphologically and metrically. Sacrum is a large triangular bone forming the posterosuperior wall of the pelvic cavity, wedged between the two innominate bones. It is formed by the fusion of five sacral vertebrae and forms the caudal end of the vertebral column. 2 The well known method for determination of male or female type of sacrum has always been the Sacral Index. The Sacral Index is calculated by the following formula: Sacral Index = Width of Sacrum x 100 / Height of Sacrum. 2 The present study was undertaken to find out similarities and differences in the metrical values of different sacral parameters in males and females and also to highlight the best parameter that could be used to study sexual dimorphism of sacrum. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present study was performed on 140 (83 male and 57 female) adult human sacra of known sex. Sacra were dry and free from deformity and fully ossified. Sacra were obtained from Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Each sacrum was studied for different features of sexual dimorphism. The parameters were measured using sliding vernier callipers, pair of divider and steel measuring scale. The following parameters were considered: 1. Maximum length of sacrum (Ventral straight length) was measured from the midpoint of the Corresponding Author: Corresponding Kopal Saini, Department Author: of Anatomy, S.B.H. Govt. Medical College, Dhule, Maharashtra, India. Anil Pawar, Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, D.A.V. College for Girls, Yamunanagar (Haryana); Mobile: ; dr.kopalsaini@gmail.com sumanil27@yahoo.co.in Received: Revised: Accepted: Received: Revised: Accepted: Int J Cur Res Rev Vol 7 Issue 3 February

2 anterosuperior margin of sacral promontory, in the midsagittal plane, to the midpoint of anteroinferior margin of the last sacral vertebra. (Photograph 1) 2. Maximum breadth of sacrum was noted at midpoint of left and right alae of sacrum. (Photograph 2) 3. Sacral index for each sacrum was calculated using formula: Sacral index = (sacral width / sacral ventral straight length) x Maximum transverse diameter of first sacral body (T-S1) was recorded. (Photograph 3) 5. Maximum antero-posterior diameter of 1 st sacral body (AP-S1) was noted. (Photograph 4) 6. Index for body of 1 st sacral vertebra was calculated using formula: A-P Diameter of body of S1 / Transverse diameter of S1 x 100 For identification of Male sacrum, the demarking point (D.P.) of a particular measurement was more than 3 S.D. of mean value for female, and, for identification of Female sacrum, the D.P. of same measurement was less than 3 S.D. of mean value for male. 3 Data were tabulated and statistically analyzed for mean, standard deviation, range, student t test, demarking points and percentage of identified bones. RESULTS Table 1 :displaying results for ventral straight length, maximum breath and sacral index. (H.S. - highly significant, N.S. - not significant, measurements in millimeters) Parameters Ventral straight length Maximum breadth Sacral index Male Female Male Female Male Female Number of bones Range Mean Standard deviation (S.D.) Mean ± 3 S.D Demarking points > < > <88.44 < 96.4 > Percentage of bones identified t value p value < (H.S.) < (N.S.) < (H.S.) 23 Int J Cur Res Rev Vol 7 Issue 3 February 2015

3 Table 2: displaying results for maximum transverse diameter (T-S1), maximum antero-posterior diameter (AP-S1) and index of body of first sacral vertebra. (H.S. - highly significant, N.S. - not significant, measurements in millimeters) Parameters Number of bones T-S1 AP-S1 Index of body- 1 st sacral vertebra Male Female Male Female Male Female Range Mean Standard deviation (S.D.) Mean ± 3 S.D Demarking points Percentage of bones identified > < >32.93 < <51.24 > t value p value < (H.S.) < (H.S.) < (H.S.) DISCUSSION Jit and Singh 3 (1966) identified sex of sacrum with 100% accuracy by calculating demarking points from the observed values. They suggested for identification of Male sacrum, the D.P. of a particular measurement was more than 3 S.D. of mean value for female, and, for identification of Female sacrum, the D.P. of same measurement was less than 3 S.D. of mean value for male. In the present study, most of the values for parameters like sacral index, index of first sacral vertebra, width of sacrum were higher in female and other parameters like length of sacrum and diameters of first sacral vertebra were higher in male. The mean value of sacral index was in males and in females. The demarking points in males was <96.4 and > in females. Of the specimens studied, 27.71% of bones in males and 57.9% of bones in females were identified correctly using this parameter alone with high level of significance (P < ). Gray s Anatomy 2 (40 th edition) gives the mean value of sacral index to be 105 in males and 115 in females. Mishra SR 4 et al (2003) obtained mean value of sacral index to be in males and in females in their study conducted on 74 male and 42 female sacra. Patel MM 5 et al (2005) in their study on 32 male and 32 female sacra found the mean value to be in males and in females. Shailaja MC 6 et al (2010) in their study on 190 male and 64 female sacra showed the mean value to be in males and in females. On the contrary, the studies conducted by Jana 7 et al (1987), Singh 8 et al (1988) and Mazumdar 9 S et al (2012) showed the mean value of sacral index to be on lower side in both sexes as compared to present study. Nevertheless sacral index still remains to be the best parameter for sex determination amongst the parameters studied. Other parameters studies showed low level of significance compared to sacral index. Perhaps sacral index can be used in combination with other parameters to improve the accuracy of sex determination. Int J Cur Res Rev Vol 7 Issue 3 February

4 Table 3: showing comparison of present study with other studies for ventral straight length, maximum breadth and sacral index. Mean ± standard deviation Parameter Sample size Ventral straight length Maximum breadth Sacral index Studies M F M F M F M F Grays anatomy Davivongs (1963) Flander (1978) White Black Raju et al (1980) Jana et al (1987) Singh et al (1988) Mishra SR et al (2003) Patel MM et al(2005) Shailaja MC (2010) Arora AK etal (2010) Sachdeva K et al (2011) Mazumdar S et al (2012) Present Study ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± Int J Cur Res Rev Vol 7 Issue 3 February 2015

5 Table 4: showing comparison of present study with other studies for parameters like transverse diameter (T-S1), antero-posterior diameter (AP-S1) and index of body of first sacral vertebra Parameter Sample size Mean ± standard deviation T-S1 AP-S1 Index of body- 1 st sacral vertebra Studies M F M F M F M F Davivongs (1963) Raju et al (1980) Mishra SR et al (2003) Sachdeva K et al (2011) Kothapalli J et al (2012) Mazumdar S et al(2012) Shree Krishna et al(2013) Present study ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ± ±5.04 CONCLUSION The present study shows that the sacral index is the best criterion for sex determination of sacrum. Using sacral index alone 27.71% of bones in males and 57.9% of bones in females could be identified. Other parameters studied like ventral straight length, maximum breadth, diameters and index of first sacral body were less significant for sex determination of sacrum. However not a single parameter could identify 100% of the bones. Hence it could be concluded that for determination of sex of sacrum, maximum number of parameters should be taken into consideration to attain 100% accuracy. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Authors would like to thank Department of Anatomy, Government Medical College, Aurangabad for their support and co-operation. Authors acknowledge the immense help received from the scholars whose articles are cited and included in references of this manuscript. The authors are also grateful to authors / editors / publishers of all those articles, journals and books from where the literature for this article has been reviewed and discussed. Conflict of interest: none Funding: none REFERENCES 1. Kothapalli J, Velichety SD, Desai V, Zammer MR. Morphometric study of sexual dimorphism in adult sacra of south Indian population. Int J Bio Med Res. 2012; 3(3): Standring S, editor. Gray s Anatomy: The Anatomical basis of Clinical Practice. 40 th edition. Spain: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; p Jit and Singh. Sexing of adult clavicles. Indian journal of medical research.1966; 54: Mishra SR, Singh PJ, Agarwal AK, Gupta RN. Identification of sex of sacrum of Agra Region. J.Anat.Soc.India. 2003; 52(2): Patel MM, Gupta BD, Singel TC. Sexing of sacrum by sacral index and Kimura s base-wing index. J. Indian Acad Forensic Med. 2005; 27(1): Math SC, Nandyal VB., Shetty VB, Pawar JD, Raj Kumar KR. Study of sexual dimorphism in human sacrum- in North Karnataka. Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology. 2010; 3(1): Jana TK., Koley TK., Saha SB., Basu SK. Variation and sexing of adult human sacrum. Journal of Anatomical society of India.1988; 37:2-3. Int J Cur Res Rev Vol 7 Issue 3 February

6 8. Singh H, Singh J, Bargotra RN. Sacral index as observed anthropometrically in the region of Jammu. Journal of Anatomical society of India.1988; 37(1). 9. Mazumdar S, Ray A, Mazumdar A, Mazumdar S, Sinha A, Vasisht S. Sexual dimorphism and regional difference in size of sacrum: A study in Eastern India. Al Ameen J Med Sci. 2012; 5(3): Davivongs V. The pelvic girdle of Australian Aborigines- Sex difference and sex determination. American Journal of Physical Anthropology.1963; 21: Flander LB. Univariate and multivariate methods for sexing the sacrum. Am. J.Phys.Anthrop.1978; 49: Raju PB, Singh S, Padmanabhan R. Sex determination and sacrum. Journal of Anatomical Society of India.1980; 30: Arora AK, Gupta P, Mahajan S, Kapoor SS. Significance of sacral index in estimation of sex in sacra of cadavers in Punjab. J. Indian Acad Forensic Med. 2010; 32(2): Sachdeva K, Singla RK, Kalsey G, Sharma G. Role of sacrum in sexual dimorphism- A morphometric study. J. Indian Acad Forensic Med. 2011; 33(3): Shree Krishna HK, Yatraj S, Vijaya Kumari. Credibility of various Indices of sacrum in identification of sex of sacrum. International Journal of Medical Toxicology and Forensic Medicine. 2013; 3(2): Photograph 1: Showing measurement of ventral straight length of sacrum Photograph 2: Showing measurement of maximum breadth of sacrum 27 Int J Cur Res Rev Vol 7 Issue 3 February 2015

7 Photograph 3: Showing measurement of maximum transverse diameter of first sacral body Photograph 4: showing measurement of antero-posterior diameter of first sacral vertebra. Int J Cur Res Rev Vol 7 Issue 3 February